Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So far, not so good. I am an IT Consultant and have been for 20 years and I am an avid ASUS fan, but wow, the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 is aggravating to say the least at this point. I couldn't possibly count the number of wireless access points, routers, extenders and other devices i've configured over the years, certainly more than 500, probably more than 1000. Some are awesome, others are a little tricky but work fine once you find their sweet spot, others just don't seem to want to show up for work at random moments. My experience so far is that the latter is the case with the GT-AC5300. Unboxing: It is a formidable looking and feeling wireless router, big, heavy and it makes me want to run from its spidery legs =] but i kind of liked that. Very solid, feels like it is made well with solid materials and would be able to disperse heat with no problem at all. Initial Setup: Pretty painless, attach the antennae, plug it in to our comcast business connection, get power to it, let it boot up and break out my laptop to connect to the standard default wireless networks that magically appear. No problem Connected to the admin UI, most folks complain about the ugly ROG interface, meh, i don't care much either way, a UI is a UI at this point to me, its all a matter of finding what needs to be done and doing it. So i won't go into all that too much, only to say that i like the initial screen of network stats screen., not necessarily the look (who cares), but the data.. me likey data.. Anyway, i'm in the admin UI, I go thru the initial standard setup that anyone who should be considering this router would be very familiar with (translation: if you are looking at a router like this, you should be very familiar with the ins and outs of how to setup wifi by now, not like its hard) and within 10 minutes or less i'm up and running with my 2g, 5gx2 internal and guest wifi networks. There is a firmware update, so i go ahead and do that as well. All is well, Cool, just as it should be. I leave it at that for the night because i have other things to do and it seems to be working ok. IPS, Game Boost, QOS and GPN (WTFast) are all in their default disabled state. If i didn't want to use the router for anything more than a standard $125 router could handle i suppose i would be writing a 4 star review.. umm.. but i spent a LOT more than that and for a reason.. Later the next day, i go in and enable Game IPS (the GT-AC5300's implementation of Trend Micros security), Adaptive QOS, Game Boost and WTFast.. woot! game on baby! well.. sorta.. i mean its JUST diablo 3 for crying out loud.. which i've been playing for years off various other wireless routers just fine... but as i'm sure you can tell.. Hell hath no fury as a necromancer routed thru a GT-AC5300! i noticed a little bit of load time issues right away, but thought nothing of it, maybe my computer was just slow today (please.. please God.. let it just be my computer slow today.. ok???) once i get in game and start up a grift, i get about 3 minutes in and i lag out, ping goes from 65ms (already very slow for me) to well over 1000ms.. then 2000ms.. 3000ms.. you know where this is going.. connection dropped.. I am in the middle of "trying everything" on this router, but i'm frustrated as you can imagine. even disabling everything and making the router the equivalent of a $400 version of a $125 router, d3 gets massive lag spikes and disconnects.. this is hardlined into the 5300 or via wireless. if i wifi directly into my old wireless router d3 plays fine. I am sad to say, that at this point my professional opinion as an IT professional with 20+ year experience specifically with network hardware and infrastructure. This router isn't ready. Either there is a manufacturing issue, where some routers have a problem and i got one of those, or there is a firmware issue or its just plain bad. i'll continue my experiments today and post anything useful i might learn. **Updated 7/2/17 1pm PST** I've downloaded the latest firmware, which as mentioned above i already installed via the admin UI, and installed it again directly from file. then did a factory reset to clear all the settings. Resetup with the same exactly settings, enabling Game IPS but leaving QOS, WTFast and Game Boost disabled, and so far so good. i've run about a dozen grifts fine, although my in game latency is averaging about 70ms which is a bit slow for me. it isn't lagging out at least and all webpages are loading so far. **Updated 7/2/17 4:45pm PST ** Sadly one problem fixed and another pops up.. I run a plex media server at home and while my wireless devices previously streamed at full file size original no problem before with many simultaneous streams. Now i can't even get a single stream to play without constant buffering. Even with a very small originating filesize of barely 1mbps. i've turned Game IPS (trend micro) off, hoping that would help but no. I also went into the advanced troubleshooting page to see if the showed anything of value and noticed that it doesn't reflect the proper wireless network names, it retained the default network names and shows no data whats so ever. /facepalm **Updated 7/2/17 5pm PST** ANOTHER manual power cycle of the router and it updated the advanced troubleshooting page to show the right SSID's. it is at least temporarily streaming video as well too. Let's see if it maintains. **Updated 7/3/17 10:20am PST** I am noticing that the router will work great for a short time after a restart, which makes it very difficult and much more time consuming to troubleshoot if a change actually has a positive effect or if its just a reboot "honeymoon phase" for the router. Lots of issues last night for my wireless devices, the kids had trouble streaming youtube and pandora and even just getting page loads on snapchat and instagram. Restart the router and it works for 30 minutes or an hour or 3. Same thing going on this morning. Definitely not good. **Updated 7/20/17 1:30pm PST** After an extreme amount of testing, tweaking and retesting.. i've found a configuration that at least for my particular router works great. Albeit, with less than fully advertised functionality. First thing i did was download the current firmware(3.0.0.4.382_12184, signature v2.022) directly from asus and manually patch the router (again, this version was already applied to the router, but i did it again, this time manually (choose file), NOT via the automatic "check" button. per a forum recommendation). After trial and error here is my basic configuration that has worked GREAT for the last 2 weeks: Game IPS - ON (all 3) Game Boost - OFF (on caused issues) Game Private Network - OFF (on caused issues) Wifi Radar - remember to STOP data collection when you are done in here or it will cause issues VPN - OFF (haven't tried it yet) Traffic Analyzer - On or Off is fine, i have mine on Tri-band Smart Connect - On (i LOVE this feature, the router smooth and seamlessly connects devices to 2.4ghz or 5ghz depending on quality and congestion of signal and capability of device) Guest network - i have one enabled fine i have all of the AICloud 2.0 menu options disabled because i don't need any of them. I'm happy to share any other settings if it might help someone else get a temporarily stable router until Asus figures out the issue.